Risk-benefit analysis regarding seafood consumption: a tool for combined intake assessment
Sioen, I.; Van Camp, J.; Verdonck, F.; Van Thuyne, N.; Vanrolleghem, P.A.; Vanhonacker, F.; Verbeke, W.; De Henauw, S. (2006). Risk-benefit analysis regarding seafood consumption: a tool for combined intake assessment. Organohalogen Compounds 68: 379-382 In: Organohalogen Compounds. European Group for Organizational Studies/Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt): Vienna. ISSN 1026-4892, more |
| Keywords | Composition > Chemical composition > Food composition
Control > Quality control
Food > Human food
Food > Human food > Seafood
Hazard assessment
Products > Fishery products
Risks
Toxicants
Marine/Coastal |
| Authors | | Top | - Sioen, I., more
- Van Camp, J., more
- Verdonck, F., more
- Van Thuyne, N.
| - Vanrolleghem, P.A., more
- Vanhonacker, F., more
- Verbeke, W., more
- De Henauw, S., more
| |
| Abstract | The aim of food consumption is to provide people with the daily necessary energy, macro- and micronutrients in order to meet recommendations and to be able to execute daily tasks. What people need are the beneficial compounds that can be found in food products. Nevertheless, people risk to ingest simultaneously compounds that can have toxicological effects. These harmful compounds can on the one hand occur naturally in food, but on the other hand anthropogenic or man-made processes can lead to contamination of food products1. As such, food items can contain benefits as well as risks for consumers. A food group for which this nutritional-toxicological conflict is well-known and largely discussed in the scientific world and in the media is fish and shellfish, also named seafood or marine food. On the one hand, fish and shellfish represent a unique source of long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids of the omega-3 family, particularly EPA and DHA. Moreover, they also contain a number of other valuable nutrients, like high quality amino acids and micronutrients like vitamin D and iodine. Therefore, it is generally accepted that seafood is important in a healthy and balanced omnivorous human diet. But on the other hand, this favourable health perception of seafood is troubled by less favourable information regarding the potential adverse health impact of chemical contamination of marine foods. Persistent organochlorine compounds, like PCBs, dioxin-like substances, and organochlorine pesticides (DDT/DDE) as well as heavy metals, e.g. mercury, accumulate in the marine food chain. This overall picture forms the basis for a conflictuous model between dietary recommendations and toxicological safety assurance. Therefore, it is useful to carry out a risk-benefit analysis to quantify the nutritional-toxicological conflict linked with seafood consumption. One important step in this risk-benefit analysis is a detailed intake assessment of nutrients and contaminants of interest by fish consumption. The model used for this intake assessment as well as the created output is described in this abstract, with a focus on the methodology and not on the results as such. |
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